1483. ANTHONY WIDVILLE, earl Rivers, beheaded at Pontefract.
1502. OLIVER MAILLARD, a French divine of the order of Cordeliers, died.
He was an eminent preacher, and published several volumes of Latin
sermons.
1584. JOHN SAMBUCUS, a learned German physician, died. His learning
attracted the attention of the emperor Maximilian II, and he was
appointed counselor of state and historiographer of the German empire.
He wrote several learned and useful works.
1605. Riot at Moscow, when Fedor Godonoff, the reigning czar, who had
been but two months on the throne, was dragged with his family from the
palace, and shut up in one of his own private houses, where he was
murdered a few days after.
1633. Lord Baltimore obtained a grant for a tract of land in America,
now the state of Maryland, which was first settled by a colony of
catholics.
1666. Second charter granted to South Carolina by Charles II. It was an
enlargement of the previous charter, making the colony independent of
any other province.
1678. HENRY SCOUGAL, an eminent Scottish divine, died, aged 28. His
great exertions to sustain himself as a professor of theology at St.
Andrews, and as a preacher, threw him into a consumption, and he died
greatly lamented.
1710. Second great immigration of Palatines.
1721. A treaty concluded at Madrid with Great Britain. The ships
employed for the traffic of negroes by the Royal company of Great
Britain, were to be admitted, without hindrance, to trade freely.
1757. Decree of pope Benedict XIV, prohibiting the use of any version of
the Bible in the common language.
1767. JAMES WORSDALE died; an English painter and dramatic writer.
1769. Corsica seized by the French. General Paoli fled, and embarked at
Corsica for England, where he remained until 1790.
1770. WOODFALL, the publisher of the _Letters of Junius_, was prosecuted
and found by the jury guilty of printing and publishing only, which was
tantamount to an acquittal.
1777. WILLIAM BATTIE died; an eminent English physician and medical
writer.
1780. Major-general Gates ordered by congress to take command of the
southern department.
1780. A society formed in Philadelphia, under the name of the American
daughters of liberty, for the purpose of supplying the soldiery with
clothing. The city was divided into 10 districts, and four appointed to
each district to solicit subscriptions. Their donations amounted to 2030
shirts, and they obtained 77 shirts and 380 pairs of stockings from New
Jersey.
1788. GEORGE LUKINS dispossessed of seven devils by the same number of
clergymen, in the Temple church, Bristol, England.
1794. Battle of Ghent; the Austrians defeated by the French.
1794. Violent earthquake and eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which did much
damage.
1796. Action between British ship Dryad, lord Beauclerc, and French
frigate La Proserpine, 45 guns; which last was captured in 44 minutes,
with the loss of 30 killed, 45 wounded. British loss 2 killed, 7
wounded.
1797. SIMON ANDREW TISSOT, a celebrated Swiss physician, died. He was
the advocate of experimental rather than theoretical systems of
medicine, and early adopted the practice of inoculation. His fame was
not confined to his own country.
1810. BONAPARTE prohibited the exportation of grain.
1813. Battle of Carcagenta, in Valencia; the Spaniards under general
Elio attacked the French, and were defeated with the loss of 1500 men,
of whom 700 were taken prisoners.
1817. RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH, an English philanthropist and practical
philosopher, died. He invented the telegraph, which was generally
adopted during his lifetime. He spent a great part of his life in
improving and experimenting on various instruments used in agriculture
and the arts.
1833. JAMES ANDREW died; principal of the East India company's seminary
at Addiscombe, and author of a Hebrew grammar and dictionary.
1843. CHARLES STERNS WHEELER, of Massachusetts, a good scholar, died at
Leipsic, Germany, aged 23.
1848. PIERRE VAN CORTLAND died, aged 86; a gentleman who filled many
important public stations, civil and military, in the state of New York.
1848. GAMALIEL S. OLDS, a distinguished American scholar, died at
Circleville, Ohio, aged 71.
1855. The anti-slavery branch of the American party, called the
Know-somethings, assembled in convention at Cincinnati.
1857. Whirlwinds occurred in several parts of the state of New York, and
in other states. This was the day in which the astrologers of Europe had
predicted the destruction of the earth by a comet, and much alarm
existed even in this country, insomuch that deaths actually occurred
from fear. The village of Pania, Ill., was wholly destroyed.